WILLIAMSTOWN The Select Board has authorized the hiring of a private investigator to explore allegations of racial and sexual harassment at the Police Department, as revealed in a lawsuit
In a separate conversation, the board and town manager agreed to extend a search for volunteers to serve an advisory committee to help Town Manager Jason Hoch select an interim chief for the Police Department. The investigation was sparked by a lawsuit filed in August by Police Sgt. Scott McGowan. The suit subsequently was dropped in December, and the board decided this winter to proceed with an independent, third-party probe into the issues McGowan raised, some going back 10 years. Andy Hogeland took the point for the board on soliciting potential investigators. On Monday, he shared the responses from interested firms to questions raised by the board at its last meeting.
Without taking a formal vote, the board expressed a consensus around a plan to bring in a long-term interim chief to help the department move forward while the town completes an evaluation of how it wants policing to look in the future. That evaluation is being led by a social work researcher who the town is hiring to study the issue and engage the community about its public safety needs. A local social worker who helped the town hire that researcher told the board that the study will take time. What s being referred to as community conversations is a full-scale research project, Kerri Nicoll said after hearing the board discuss the question for several minutes. It will be conducted by a professional in this field. It s not simply social-workers going out to chit chat with people.
And one member of the five-person Select Board will be leaving his post a year ahead of schedule. Those were the surprises to emerge from a meeting that mostly focused on the town s efforts to investigate accusations of wrongdoing in its police department and develop a plan to replace its recently retired chief. Patton later said the town is just at the start of investigating the latest complaint and she was not at liberty to provide any details, including the department where the accusation arose. But in her initial announcement, she did refer to another town department, implying that the new complaint is outside the Williamstown Police Department, which has been under the microscope townwide since August s announcement of a federal discrimination lawsuit brought by a sergeant in the department.
Search Is On For Permanent Williamstown Police Chief
The Select Board is moving forward to find a permanent police chief.
The Berkshire Eagle reports that, based on one of two options offered by member Andy Hogeland, Town Manager Jason Hoch will move forward to identify an interim chief in an abbreviated search.
It looks like community input will deduce what the department will look like and also what the community wants to see in a permanent police chief.
Once these steps are completed, a professional search firm would be engaged for the four or five-month process of finding a permanent chief.